Everyone in India, is all praise for Jawaharlal Nehru,. the so-called architect of socialism
He developed
his policies in the fashion of the communist Russia. (It could be because he used to get red-carpet welcome in all the communist states of that time as he was fighting the capitalist west and denouncing the colonial imperialists, a jargon the communists have liked always. He could have had been taken aback by the royal treatment and respect he used to be accorded to by the ‘ dictatorships of the proletariat ‘ which were not available to him in the really advanced nations of that time. He had failed to make an independent assessment of the regressive, retrograde and futile nature of the economic and political philosophy followed by those communists. He followed his heart’s directions ( an outcome of emotions and not of intellectual judgment) which later proved to be a suicidal instinct.
After the pattern of the socialist Russia and others in their genre, he closed our borders and made this country totally isolated from the world like the iron curtain that existed in say, the USSR.. He invested the nation’s entire resources in the public sector industries most of which became ‘white elephants’ or total failures. He tried to prop them up with heavy subsidies and the tax payer’s money. Private enterprise was dissuaded nationally in the name of socialism.
A few capitalist who had already proved too big were allowed to continue, though. Nehru managed, like his friends in Russia, to take away the initiative and the competitive nature of the people. He introduced so many state controls and which led to red tapism and bureaucracy. Nehru made innumerable governments departments and the number of government employees increased immensely who started eating away whatever this poor nation produced. Organized Unions disrupted work and production in every sector and but their pay was continuously increased without considering productivity. The militant unions stifled industrial growth and no foreign country came forward to invest here. .
Corruption became the order of the day. The ever increasing government officials with the ever increasing laws and restrictions further stifled industries. Well they amassed wealth without doing anything. But generally, making money became a sin and individual advancement undesirable. He made the Indian media echo what the Russians wanted us to know. The whole country was in the dark about the developments taking place in the west. The Indian T.V, Radio and newspapers sang the praises of the socialist states and denounced the imperialist and capitalist west.
He tried his best to take money from the rich by way of high taxation and dole the same out to the poor. In the process, he made both sections poor and India one of the poorest nations of the world. Everything was subsidized for the advantage of the weaker sections and eventually they ( the vast majority) came to believe that they had to be protected and saved by the state. They were not prepared to take responsibility for their future and became more and more lazy. The poor conditions proliferated triggering population explosion and the country became still poorer.
During Nehru’s time ( and perhaps during the reign of his daughter too) the only acceptable social theory had been the Russian model communism. Just like the political philosophy made USSR (the largest nation with the maximum natural resources and scanty population a pauper ) Nehru’s policy sealed India’s fate. The influence persisted for over four decades until the time of Narasimha Rao who opened up the Indian Economy by following the Free Market principles. The roots of the Russian model socialism are stifling any attempted growth by the subsequent politicians like the savior of India, Narasimha Rao. What a sad paradox that nobody here rememebers him.
Even now this great land is after the son of a pilot who enjoyed doing his work. He was dragged into politics he never enjoyed. He knew nothing about steering the state nor determining what is needed for the nation. The son of the father is also being dragged to fill the top post. Is he capable or is he interested or not in politics,who cares? The feeling is long live the dynasty!